For Social Inclusion: Young Women Take Europe

Activities Report

The fundamental purpose of this project is to fight against the growing ideologies of

hate and violence through the inclusion of young women as active citizens. This project

hopes to effect the social inclusion of young women through enhancing their

employability and through the development of their social, civic, and intercultural

competency, media literacy, and critical thinking about the discourses that promote

segregation, racism, and violence.

Social inclusion through employability allows for the acquisition of economic resources

that grant greater independence and alleviate the situation of social exclusion that many

young women experiences. Furthermore, this process enables young women to move

beyond closed family and social environments to interact with realities heretofore

distant for them, along the way embracing the values that Europe represents for its

citizens. For these reasons, one of the principal priorities of this project is the social

inclusion.

Goals

Among the main goals of the project “For Social Inclusion: Young Women Take

Europe” we highlight:

1. To provide tools, studies, and other measures that will help us to understand the

current situation and to improve the possibilities of the inclusion of young

women in a state of exclusion.

2. To promote, through the previous objectives, new intersectional services that

fight against ideologies of hate and which achieve the inclusion of young

women through their employability, complementing EU programmes like the

Program for Employment and Social Innovation, or the Plan of Guarantee for

Youth.

3. To create a network of intersectional work that promotes these objectives in the

long term by having an INTERACTIVE WOMEN'S PLATFORM FOR

INCLUSION IN EUROPE, a shared virtual environment that connects dozens of

local and regional governments with hundreds of young women to facilitate its

social inclusion through employability.

This project is of transnational proportions, and it aims to confront an issue that affects

the very foundations of the EU, and issue currently suffered by each and every one of

the EU member states. It is necessary to put an end to violence and hate, and this

requires the efforts of all countries and of all social sectors, public and private.

Activities

For 18 months we have promoted various transnational meetings, as well as participated

in different national forums with young people, technicians and public authorities with

the aim of designing, creating and implementing the WOMEN'S PLATFORM FOR

INCLUSION IN EUROPE. Our commitment is that this platform be constituted as a

useful network interactive environment dozens of social entities, regional governments

and municipalities providing a multitude of training tools, information and assistance to

young women to promote their social inclusion through employability within the social

economy and municipalism, while promoting their European citizenship and fighting

hate speech. All materials are based on innovation and the use of ICTs, being attractive

and quality materials.

The results of the project include:

• WOMEN'S PLATFORM FOR INCLUSION IN EUROPE. A virtual

environment shared between municipalities, local governments and young

people themselves based on innovative non-formal pedagogies, participatory

management between technicians and young people themselves, the

development of learning materials and tools as well as the effective use of

information technologies and communication (ICT) in youth.

This tool is the result of the work and analysis of six European entities with the

clear objective of facilitating their social inclusion through the employability and

empowerment of young women by creating a network with local and regional

governments.

• DIGITAL TOOLBOX in which various training, information and assistance

tools will be available for young people seeking employment as well as youth

information services and promotion of municipal and regional employment.

• Creation of a project and network website (www.lafec.org)

These results will allow the various municipalities, regional governments and social

entities nationwide to launch a comprehensive training, information and assistance

service that offers young women various tools to improve their employability and social

inclusion.

Partners

The entities involved in this project defend a more social, inclusive and cohesive

Europe, centered on citizens, where social inclusion, stable and quality work for young

people is the bet to end hate and xenophobia.

Six entities lead this project: Foundation for Europe of Citizens (Spain), Nikos

Poulanzas Institute (Greece), Transform Italia (Italy), Transform Austria (Austria),

March 8 Institute (Slovenia) and Espaces Marx (France). All of them are experts in the

different areas of action of this project (women, anti-racism, community intervention,

social action, research studies) and have the ability to provide a great impact to the

project by reaching agreements with municipal and regional governments in order to

give the results a real and very significant applicability throughout Europe. In this

regard, it should be noted that this network has large national entities with political and

institutional representation in each of the respective countries and has the capacity for

direct dialogue with the Parliament and the European Commission.

FOUNDATION FOR EUROPE OF CITIZENS (FEC) from Spain

https://www.lafec.org

The Foundation for Europe of Citizens is a foundation for critical thinking and political

debate that aims to promote dialogue between all areas of scientific thinking that

contribute to a progressive vision of society. The FEC promotes research, seminars,

publications and materials for political formation with the objective of contributing to

social transformation under the principles of equity, justice, democracy and anti-

capitalism.

INSTITUTE 8.MAREC (March 8 Institute) of Slovenia

https://www.facebook.com/institut8.marec

The March 8 Institute studies the various forms of social subordination, through

analysis of the field of neoconservative movements and their practices and under the

prism of feminist theory and criticism of political economy. The Institute aims to

challenge neo-conservatism by investigating not only specific agents, such as civil

society movements and political parties, but also organizing concrete actions, whose

objective is twofold: to close the path to neoconservatives and establish a space where

they can carry out new emancipatory practices.

ESPACES MARX from France

http://www.espaces-marx.net

The world is undergoing major changes: capitalist globalization, financialization,

ecological disorders, labor transformations, etc. It is imperative to renew

representations, ideas and even concepts to understand this world to transform it.

Espaces Marx has set the goal of contributing to research and the struggles that are

essential in this situation. It is a meeting place, a laboratory of new ideas and an open

space to all who want to work to advance in emancipatory thinking.

NICOS POULANZAS INSTITUTE from Greece https://poulantzas.gr/

The Nicos Poulantzas Institute (NPI) was founded in 1997 as an initiative of the

political party "Synaspismos". His work links to the ideal of democratic socialism and

the effort to overcome dogmatic rigidity, fight against any form of authoritarian

government and contribute to a multifaceted social liberation. Its formation aims to

promote the values of the left, systematically develop an awareness of contemporary

social, ecological, political and cultural problems and explore emerging changes within

society.

TRANSFORM! IT from Italy

https://transform-italia.it/

Transform! Italy is a project founded by the initiative of groups of researchers,

intellectuals, academics, activists of the trade union and social movements as well as

individuals from different political, social and cultural experiences. His work focuses on

the promotion of experiences and cultures committed to the free and autonomous

development of the individual, with principles based on freedom of expression, respect

for diversity and intercultural dialogue. Transform! Italy is considered a research

laboratory within the movement against neoliberal globalization and war and is an actor

in the European Social Forum.

TRANSFORM! AT from Austria

http://transform.or.at

Transform! Austria is an association for the promotion of debate and leftist policies. Its

objective is to improve cooperation between progressive academics and focus their

theoretical and practical knowledge, strategic competence and everyday ideas.

Transform! AT define itself in opposition to neoliberalism, patriarchy, sexism and

fundamentalism of all kinds and functions as a discussion forum for leftist, democratic,

feminist, anti-authoritarian and anti-paternalistic positions, which aims to expand with a

strong internationalist dimension.

Transnational meetings

Bilbao (Spain). First transnational meeting. November 10, 2018

The first transnational face-to-face meeting, held in Bilbao in November 2018 and

organized by the FEC, coordinating entity of the project, focused on the detailed

presentation of the content of the project as well as the distribution of tasks and the

scheduling of the project. The different partner entities discussed their activities as well

as their involvement in the fulfillment of the objectives and the materialization of the

project results.

It was also the occasion to sign different legal agreements between the entities as well

as the logistics and activity management agreements.

Partners from Slovenia, Italy and Austria took advantage to present experiences from

their respective countries, which could serve as possible starting points for their national

contributions to the project.

As specific agreements of the working day, it concluded that for the next meetings each

partner would prepare presentations that addressed:

• Analysis of the situation in each country about the rise of hateful

discourses among working women, with special space to share

experiences of the country hosting the meeting.

• A set of experiences, documents and actors (trade unions, volunteering

associations, women associations, anti-racist organizations, etc.) linked

to the aims of our project (experiences and actors working with young

women in risk of exclusion and poverty –both national and migrants-

tackling hate discourses, racism and strategies for their social inclusion

through employability).• As our next meeting will be focused in

gathering more information from national situations, each partner has to

present an

Paris (France). Second transnational meeting. March 9, 2019

The second transnational face-to-face meeting was held in Paris in March 2019. It

focused on the finalization and evaluation of the study of the situation of hate ideology-

based movements in Europe, with special attention to the countries participating in the

project. Likewise, progress was made in the socioeconomic characterizations of each

country in relation to the social and labor integration of young women at risk of

exclusion.

As a host organization, Espaces Marx researchers prepared two presentations, the first

focusing on the gender gap and sexualization in the labor market, as well as the

relationship of precariousness and social exclusion with the evolution of the vote to the

extreme right in France. The second presentation focused on the role of women in the

French yellow jacket movement, deepening the sociological composition of the

movement as well as a summary of its main demands, focused on the economic and

public services. For their part, the partners of Transform! AT and Transform! IT also

presented advances in relation to their respective national analyzes.

Finally, a collective evaluation of the work done so far was carried out, through the

presentation by the coordinating entity of a summary of the pending activities and the

partial achievement of the objectives.

Athens (Greece). Third transnational meeting. May 4, 2019

The third transnational face-to-face meeting was held in Greece in May 2019. The

agenda focused on the discussion about the format and content of the digital tool

included in the interactive WOMEN'S PLATFORM FOR INCLUSION IN EUROPE.

In this sense, tools were selected for training, information and assistance of young

people in search of employment or who wish to carry out initiatives within the social

economy, particularly aimed at women and especially vulnerable groups.

This time it was the occasion of the Nicos Poulantzas Institute to present in depth the

national situation on hate speech and its influence of young precarious women in the

country. In this sense, the evaluation of the governmental experience led by Syriza, a

party linked to the Nicos Poulantzas Institute, was exposed in the promotion of public

policies for social inclusion and in political strategies to curb the extreme right. All this

in a context of the so-called "refugee crisis" in Greece.

On the other hand, the partners of Slovenia and Spain also presented an overview of the

situation in their respective countries of both movements based on hate ideologies and

their relationship with young women at risk of social exclusion. In this sense, the

emphasis was placed on the importance of feminist and LGBTI rights movements in

both countries.

Finally, the meeting concluded with the presentation by the coordinating entity of

evaluation reports of the course of the project and with the distribution of the pending

tasks.

Fourth transnational meeting. June 11, 2019

The fourth and last face-to-face transnational meeting took place in Austria in June

2019. The meeting focused on the final evaluation of the project as well as the review of

the first versions of the results prepared from the contributions of each of the partners

about their national situations.

In this sense, the conclusions and recommendations provided by each country for the

elaboration of final conclusions were analyzed.

Coinciding with the completion of the project, a group evaluation of the work carried

out was carried out and the bases for its continuity were laid through the strengthening

of the international network promoted in recent months.

This evaluation highlighted the commitment that each entity adopted for the

dissemination of the results of the project among the political and social actors with

which each of the partners in their respective countries have relations.

Dissemination activities

Throughout the project, a series of promotion and dissemination activities have been

included that have involved the different partners of the project at European level, as

well as collaborating entities at national and international level, highlighting the

members of the European foundations network Transform! Europe, based in Vienna

and which brings together more than 25 research institutes and foundations linked to

progressive movements and parties throughout Europe.

Initially, the dissemination activities were aimed at strengthening the visibility of the

project, promoting the presence in social networks and on the websites of the different

entities involved in the development of the activities. In these activities, the

development of a corporate identity of its own was based on the graphic design of the

project accompanied by the logos of the partner entities as well as the Erasmus +

program.

In a second moment, as the activities were producing tangible materials and results, the

dissemination phase consisted of the search for networks of social, political and

institutional actors from which to multiply the impact of our project. In this way,

meetings were held with the representatives of the Transform Network! Europe and

with different forums of mayors at European level (as, for example, with the Forum of

Mayors of the United Left, among which there were representatives of both the

Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces -FAMP- and the Spanish

Federation of Municipalities and Provinces - FEMP-). These meetings were used for the

search of strategic allies with whom to share the results of the project in the form of a

women's platform for inclusion in Europe, a virtual environment with resources and

experiences linked to the employability of young women at risk of exclusion, fighting at

the same time the consequences of movements based on hate speech.

Finally, in a third moment, the final result of the project has been made public in the

form of a platform through the website of the coordinating entity

(http://www.lafec.org/for-social-inclusion-young-women-take-europe/). This website not

only accounts for the different activities of the project, but also, through a private access

with username and password (whose request is free), the different entities are allowed

access to a space with useful resources for the implementation of social initiatives and

public policies linked to the objectives of the project. To disseminate these results, the

following banner was created in two languages

(http://www.lafec.org/digital-box/):

This banner is visible on the websites of the different project partners (entities from

France, Slovenia, Greece, Italy, Austria and Spain) and has been disseminated through

email lists and the social networks of partners and strategic allies , thus multiplying the

impact, in a process that we hope will continue to obtain results in the coming months,

as it is a living project that will feed on the interactions of the different entities through

the Platform.